Supreme Clientele

Anari had her chauffer park in the back of Stello’s. She had never visited the restaurant in the daytime, but because of recent events, she felt a meeting with the roundtable was urgent. Before she exited the tinted limo, she put on her big shades that covered most of her face, and a silk head wrap that concealed her hair. Her new French manicure graced the door handle and she exited the limo. She walked to the back entrance and knocked on the door. A man looked through the peephole and let Anari in. Anari went straight to Meechi’s office and knocked on the door.

“Come in,” Meechi said as he sat at his desk, talking on the phone. Anari pulled off her sunglasses, exposing her face. Meechi quickly hung up the phone when he noticed Anari’s face, and gave her his full attention. Anari had a displeased look on her face as she sat down in the chair in front of Meechi’s desk.

“What the fuck is going on?” Anari said calmly as she seductively crossed her legs and rested her folded hands on her knee.

“I don’t know. They just busted in unexpectedly. They don’t have anything, though, but someone is talking. They mentioned Supreme Clientele, and the detective asked about the meetings.”

“We have a rat somewhere.”

“I know.”

“Where is your father?”

“He went back to Chicago, just until things calmed down.”

“I don’t blame him. But shit doesn’t stop now. We need to find the inside rat and handle that situation. There is too much money being lost right now with us having no coke,” Anari said with a serious look on her face.

She wasn’t going to let a raid stop the operation. There was too much money to lose by shutting down. Anari had been in the dope game for a long time and had seen hundreds of millions of dollars pass through her hands. The money was just as addictive as the dope that she sold. She knew that she was taking a loss, but there was nothing she could do. The last couple months, her connect had been without dope, which meant she was without it. Anari kept thinking about her empire slowly going down the drain, and that only fed her desire to find another connect. She had worked too hard to establish herself in the drug game. I’ll be damned if I fall off because of a fucking drought. Anari’s first priority was to find the police informant, within the restaurant.

“Who do you think is the rat?” Anari asked as she leaned back in her chair.

“Well, there are only a few people that know about the meetings,” Meechi said as he reached out his hand and began to count. “There’s only Liz and Marcella. I caught Marcella talking to Liz one night about the meeting, so I got her taken care of. Liz, she is a good girl and goes to church every Sunday. She wouldn’t say anything. And there’s Buggy, but he’s a fuckin’ retard. Oh yeah, and there is Zya. She’s the black waitress that served us the other night.”

“What do you know about that Zya chick? Could she be snitching?”

“No fuckin’ way. Forget about it! She’s just as dirty us. Ya see, she’s been pushing coke around the restaurant. You know, since the drought. If you ask me, she kind of reminds me of you a couple of years ago,” Meechi said as he played with the toothpick that dangled out of his mouth.

“Is that right? Where do you think she gets her coke from? Is it any good?”

“Probably not. She’s from the fuckin’ ghetto,” Meechi said as he laughed at his own joke.

Anari grew slightly offended and replied, “I’m from the hood, Di’Meechi. Don’t get it twisted. For the last couple of years, I’ve had the purest shit that hits this country, so that don’t mean shit!”

Meechi knew he had pushed Anari’s buttons, and tried to lighten up the mood. “Sorry, Anari. No disrespect. I just don’t think she has the quality that we are looking for.”

“Just to make sure, let me talk to her. Set it up for later on tonight.”

“Okay,” Meechi agreed as he nodded his head up and down.

“And Meechi, take care of the other waitress and fire that retarded kid. I’d rather be safe than sorry,” Anari said as she got up to leave the office. She didn’t want to kill Liz, but it was all in the game. This was the life she had chosen, and there was no half-stepping; either you do it all the way, or don’t do it at all. Anari wanted to keep the grass cut, because then the snakes would show.

Wade rode through the city streets, collecting his thoughts. Lately, the only thing he could think about was revenge. He remembered how close he had been with his deceased cousin, Tiffany. He laughed as he pictured them in the bar, getting drunk as hell together and trading “yo’ momma” jokes, and when he first told her he was going to be a cop. She talked for days about him becoming one of the “others.”

Then he remembered when he was the one called to the scene when she supposedly committed suicide. He had just talked to her the night before, and everything was going good with her. He knew that she couldn’t have killed herself, and it tugged at his heart. The only thing he could remember was her naked body hanging there with a lipstick mark on her cheek. He couldn’t get the image out of his head.

He missed his cousin a lot. The sad feeling he was experiencing instantly transformed into rage when he thought about who was responsible for her brutal death. He wanted Anari to suffer for what she had done, and now that he had a chance to get her, he wasn’t going to miss.

Wade looked in his ashtray and saw his half-smoked blunt and picked it up. As he began to light it, his phone rang. He put the blunt down and answered his cell phone.

“This is Wade,” he said.

“They found the waitress’s body in the water last night,” Lieutenant Jones said on the other end.

“Fuck, fuck, fuck! They killed Zya,” Wade yelled as he hit his steering wheel repeatedly. He knew that Zya was his only connection to Supreme Clientele. She was the only person that could get close to Anari.

“No, not Zya Miller. Elizabeth Fulton, the other waitress,” Jones said as he corrected Wade.

Wade was relieved that the key to the case was still safe and sound. “Damn, they got to her. She had three little boys at home. What was the cause of her death?”

“A single shot to the back of the head. After she was shot, her body got tossed in the river. Her body was spotted by the boat unit.”

Wade picked up the blunt and hit it then hung up the phone. He knew if they found out Zya was cooperating, she would be next. It’s only a matter of time before they sniff her out. I have to find out as much as possible before they find out. Zya was only a pawn in Wade’s chess game, and he had no problem sacrificing her. But before he did, he wanted to get the most out of her.

Zya took the money from the short, bald-headed Italian and slyly slid him a small bag filled with coke. He had just copped three grams from her. Zya walked away while stuffing the money into her apron when Meechi approached her.

“Let me see you in my office right now,” he said sternly as he grabbed her elbow.

“All right, damn.”

Zya walked to Meechi’s office and saw the woman she had served at the roundtable leaning on the edge of Meechi’s desk. She also noticed another man from the table sitting to her far right.

“Take a seat, Zya,” The woman instructed as she opened her hand and waved it over the chair nearest to her. Zya walked over and sat down, her heart beating fast. She didn’t know what they wanted from her, and she grew uneasy.

They found out about Wade’s proposition. I’m all fucked up now. Damn, I knew they were gon’ find out. I’m not trying to be mixed up in this shit, Zya thought as she sat down and crossed her legs.

“My name is Anari, and I hear you got a little clientele in here.”

“Yeah, I get a lot of requests.”

“Nah, not that kind of clientele. You know what I’m talking about. Coke clientele,” Anari said as she studied Zya.

Meechi must have told her, and now she’s mad because I’m cutting in on some of her money, she thought before saying, “Just a few grams here and there. Just to make a little extra cash on the side.”

Anari wasn’t about to beat around the bush, so she put her cards on the table. “Do you have any on you?”

Zya pulled a baggy containing three grams and handed it to Anari. Anari ripped the bag open and poured the coke on the table. She dipped her pinky in the coke and rubbed it on her gums to see how numb it would get. The quicker her gums got numb, the better the product. To Anari’s surprise, her gums numbed up instantly. She called the man in the corner over to test it out, and he bent over the product and hit a line.

Snort! Snort! The man immediately stood up straight and threw his head back to prevent his nose from running. “Damn, that’s some good shit. I can’t feel my fuckin’ face,” he said jokingly as he imitated a scene off of a movie.

Anari chuckled and then looked at Zya. “Can you get more of that?” she asked as she pointed at the coke.

Zya spoke before even thinking. “Yeah, I got it all day. What you need?”

“Let’s start off light. How soon can you get me two?”

Zya smiled, knowing she was about to get paid. Hell yeah, I can get them in a couple of days. You ain’t said shit but a word, she thought as she tried to conceal her excitement.

“Okay, so you want two bricks? To you, I’ll sell those twelve a piece. That’ll be twenty-four thousand for both of them.”

Anari and the man laughed at Zya so hard, Zya grew kind of offended.

“What’s so funny?” Zya asked as she looked around, trying to see what she had missed.

Anari cleared her throat and said, “I want two hundred kilos. Can you handle that?”

Zya was so embarrassed, and to save face, she confidently replied, “Yeah, I can get them. I need about a week to discuss things with my partner.”

“So, it’s official. I should be hearing from you in a week or so then.”

“All right, then,” Zya said just before she got up and exited the room.

What the fuck did I just do? How in the hell am I supposed to get 200 kilos of cocaine? I’ve never even seen more than twenty at a time. I’m always running my damn mouth, trying to be Miss Big Shot. How could I say I didn’t have them, after they were laughing like I ain’t a hustla or something? I gets down for mine. I need to call Snow and see what he can do. Damn!